Fun and Games Dept

Vibe.

I enjoy the vibe of Downtown Tucson. While not a particularly large downtown area, Tucson has some great little restaurants and has made some good decisions in reusing old storefronts and the like throughout the area.

We met our friend Mike at the local gay bar for a drink. Mike and Bubba have been together for a long while; Bubba works during the week but Mike was able to hang out for a bit. Earl enjoys his Piggly Wiggly shirt. I brought my beer gut, though I wasn’t drinking beer.

Afterwards Earl and I went to a place downtown called The Drunken Chicken. It’s a small location but has a great vibe about it. Earl decided to cover up his Piggly Wiggly tank top for dinner.

When we left it was quiet out and about. I guess that’s typical for the area on a Wednesday night.

Itching To Swim.

We have an indoor pool. I was very excited when we bought a home with an indoor pool and spent many months swimming on a daily basis.

My body then decided I’d used up all my swimming tokens and now I break out in a light rash when I swim in our pool. No one else in the family has this issue, so my skin has just decided to do its own thing.

I now swim just once in a while.

The experience is enjoyable but I have to take an off-brand Benadryl for a couple of days afterward to cope with any itchiness.

It’s worth it.

Champagne.

My annual salary increase was a little larger than anticipated. When I received the news on Monday, I told my husband I’d like to have a date night at a local restaurant, and the night should include a bottle of champagne.

We had a very nice time at Charro Steak and Del Rey here in Tucson. Living on the outskirts of the city, it’s a 30 minute or so drive to the downtown area. I enjoy the vibe of Tucson’s downtown. It’s small but feels rather up and coming and I like the area.

Our reservation was for 18:30 and we were seated just before the restaurant seemingly filled to capacity. I understand the restaurant to be two restaurants that were combined into one; we took a peek to the other (behind the wall with the bar) and the same atmosphere seemed to continue on over there.

The food was delicious and our selections were rather decadent. This sort of activity is not something we can do every week, even with my higher than anticipated raise, but once in a great while is rather fun.

While I have historically enjoyed trying different craft beers, as I get older my stomach doesn’t enjoy beer as much as it used to. I also enjoy a good glass of wine, and adding some bubbles to the experience was a nice change of pace. Actually, I’m discovering I really like Champagne and Prosecco when the mood is right. Years ago I read that Larry Hagman enjoyed drinking Champagne while performing as Major Nelson on “I Dream of Jeannie”. I don’t think I could do that. Once in a while is just fine for me.

It was a lovely evening.

More Hockey.

It was the second to last regular game of the season with the Tucson Roadrunners playing San Jose tonight. As one of the first 1500 fans in attendance, we both received Roadrunner bobble heads. Tomorrow night is fan appreciation night and it’ll probably be another raucous time.

We lost. Again. But we are in the playoffs. We’re holding off on purchasing playoff tickets until we see how the team does in the first round, which they’ll play away from home.

Street Fair.

Marshall tagged along as we went to the Street Fair again this year. I don’t know the official name of the street fair but it takes place on Fourth Street Avenue. It’s a good time of year for this sort of thing; it’s not too hot and the vibe is friendly. I find the vibe to be friendly most of the time here in Tucson. I liked the laid back nature of this town.

We saw a few things of interest and had some good food. I had a beer while chatting with the folks in the neighborhood committee sponsoring the beer tent. The beer wore off quickly.

I stopped by a wet shaving supplies tent, but the man with the huge beard didn’t have much to say. I thought it was odd that he was selling shaving supplies but I’ll check out his website someday.

Overall we had a pleasant afternoon.

Hockey.

Hockey season seems very long to me. Tonight they announced there are 18 more games in the season for the Tucson Roadrunners. We won’t be going to every game, as every game is not at home and we don’t have a full season package.

Tonight’s game was fun but we lost 15 seconds into overtime. Sometimes that’s the way the puck goes.

Revisiting Tradition.

It’s been a few years since we’ve been in this neck of the woods, but when we would visit on a regular basis during the holiday season, we had a tradition of heading over to Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, N.J. They have an enjoyable eatery in the middle of the mall called “The Bistro”. We went there today while doing some Christmas browsing. The mall wasn’t very busy, but we had a nice lunch together.

I love how my husband is wearing a scarf with his t-shirt. He’s a little bit desert southwest and a little bit northeast on this trip.

UA709.

We are en route from Tucson to O’Hare for our trip back east. We are in row 23 on this A320. The airplane is about 60% full and it’s not as awful as I thought it would be.

Legally 11.

We celebrated 11 years of legal marriage this evening. I was happy to finish my jury duty this afternoon and maintain our plans for the evening.

We decided to try our hands at a local casino a little bit, losing a lot but then gaining a bit to just lose a little. I still dont like losing at the casino but at least we were able to keep it reasonable. We went to the casino because 11 years ago tonight, we were legally married at the casino near our home at the time. Marriage is a gamble, wed snicker, so a casino seemed like a natural choice.

Afterwards we went to a locally owned steakhouse known for their prime rib. I dont eat as much meat as I used to and every once in a while I get in the mood for a steak, so we went to El Corral. The service excellent, we had a couple of enjoyable cocktails, and the food was very good. I definitely look forward to going back for another visit.

We decided to splurge on dessert and I casually mentioned to the server we were celebrating our legal anniversary when I asked her to take our photo. Because of our celebration she gave us the desserts for free and that was very nice. The manager then came over and congratulated us on our legal anniversary.

It was a very nice evening.